Blender rigging / skinning

Overview

I've been asked or have seen many times the question on how to learn rigging (a.k.a skinning) which is the process of applying weights on vertices of a model to allow it to bend with a skeletal bone structure. This allows armor and clothing to bend and move with the pre-defined animations for the character / creature.

Here are the ways (and tutorials) that I currently know about doing this process with Blender.